The Resident Evil 3 Remake’s Item Shop Adds Needed Replayability

There’s been a mixed reaction to Resident Evil 3 from series fans, since the remake’s linearity removed much of what made the original so replayable. Luckily, the Resident Evil 3 remake’s unlockable shop provides needed variety to subsequent playthroughs, with various items that help make each run different.

Most of the controversy regarding the Resident Evil 3 remake’s changes revolves around the removal of key features from the original. What’s added is mostly great, like Jill’s improved dodge ability and the over-the-shoulder combat, but the remake also cut several areas from the game – including the fan-favorite Clock Tower – and got rid of the “live selections” that allowed players to take branching paths through the campaign. Instead, Resident Evil 3′s story is the same for every single playthrough.

There’s still a certain satisfaction to playing Resident Evil 3 a second time, memorizing its maps and anticipating what were once surprise encounters. But that kind of speedrun-style mastery is only really fun for a certain kind of player without something to shake up each run. That’s where the shop comes in.

1 How Resident Evil 3’s Shop Makes Extra Playthroughs Fun

Once players have beaten Resident Evil 3′s story once on any difficulty, they’ll unlock a shop in the main menu. One could think of the items in the shop as Resident Evil 3′s cheats, but they serve more as a de facto New Game Plus. Players earn points for completing certain challenges, and these points can be spent on in-game advantages, like early access to the Lock Pick, extra damage when holding the Assault Coin, or an infinite-ammo handgun. Because challenges provide tangible rewards rather than just bragging rights, the shop encourages players to engage with RE3′s in-game achievement system, and it also encourages players to try Resident Evil 3′s harder difficulties, since holding shop items makes these much less intimidating.

Some of the more expensive items – like the ridiculously powerful, infinite-ammo rocket launcher – completely break the game, but players won’t be able to afford these unless they’ve have completed most of the game’s challenges. The brilliance of the shop is that most items don’t ruin Resident Evil 3′s survival horror elements – all thanks to the inventory system. Every item in the shop (besides Jill’s alternate costume) only provides its benefits if it’s taking up valuable inventory space. Players still have to carefully consider which shop items they’ll bring along, weighing the benefits of upgraded normal weapons versus base shop weapons. It’s a clever system that turns what is, to some, a disappointingly short game into one that’s very fun to play again.

Resident Evil 3 released for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on April 3, 2020.

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Camden Jones
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Camden Jones is one of Screen Rant’s gaming features editors. He loves video games, but he’s even more interested in the people who make and play them.

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